Quest for Glory: Shadows of Darkness
Quest for Glory: Shadows of Darkness (aka Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness) is an adventure game/role-playing game hybrid. It is the fourth installment of the Quest for Glory computer game series by Sierra Entertainment. Plot Drawn without warning from victory in Tarna, the Hero arrives without equipment or explanation in the middle of the hazardous Dark Caves in the distant land of Mordavia. Upon escaping from the closing cave mouth, he meets a mysterious young woman named Katrina who assists him again several times in his journey. He encounters several old foes, including the not-quite-dead Ad Avis and the ogress Baba Yaga, and makes several bizarre new allies. The Hero is ultimately coerced into assisting Ad Avis' Dark Master (who turns out to be Katrina) in collecting the Dark Rituals that will awaken Avoozl the Dark One (an obvious Cthulhu pastiche, and most likely a reference to the Slavic deity Chernobog) from his slumber underneath the Dark Caves. Naturally, the Hero is freed from this control and thwarts their plan, destroying Ad Avis in the process. During the celebration of the Hero's somewhat pyrrhic victory, the wizard Erasmus appears, summoning the Hero to the land of Silmaria. Development See ''Quest for Glory IV'' Development. Differences from Previous Quest for Glory Games Content Quest for Glory IV features far darker themes while maintaining the humor of previous games through such methods as incorporating Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre parodies. Centered around a dark cult summoning an unfathomably large evil, the game was a far cry from earlier villains such as Baba Yaga. Moreover, to fight the new monsters, Quest for Glory IV implemented an entirely new fighting system. While sometimes criticized as clunky, the new system was undeniably different. Sound Quest for Glory IV is the first in the series to feature voice actors and an audible narrator, John Rhys-Davies. Additionally, the game featured a largely original sound track by Aubrey Hodges – although it did feature a reprise of the Hero’s Theme from previous games and a rendition of Anitra's Dance by Edvard Grieg which played as background music in the Mordavian Inn. Cast *John Rhys-Davies - Narrator *Jennifer Hale - ''Katrina'' *Gregg Berger - Dmitri Ivanov aka the Burgomeister *Jeff Bennett - Ad Avis / Bonehead / Dr. Cranium / Igor '' *Cathianne Blore - [[Anna|''Anna]] *Hamilton Camp - Lorre Petrovich aka The Chief / Punny Bones *Cam Clarke - Domovoi / Blackjack Davy aka Gypsy Davy / Nikolai *Jim Cummings - Boris Stovich / Hans '' *Bill Farmer - [[Leshy|''Leshy]] *Joan Gerber - ''Magda'' *Jess Harnell - ''Franz'' *Mitzi McCall - ''Bella Markarov'' *Diane Pershing - Erana / Rusalka '' *Stu Rosen - [[Yuri Markarov|''Yuri Markarov]] *Neil Ross - Erasmus / Ivan '' *Susan Silo - ''Baba Yaga / Fenrus / Olga Stovich / Tatiana the Queen of the Faery Folk *Russi Taylor - ''Tanya Markarov'' Other Notabilities Tarot Sequence A particularly detailed sequence in the game involved the Gypsy Magda gathering information about the hero's future and his possible enemies or allies using a deck of Tarot cards. The images used for the game were taken from the Russian Tarot of St. Petersburg1, a Rider-Waite-Smith clone deck, and the layout used appears to be unique to the game. Behind the scenes The game is referred to as simply Quest for Glory: Shadows of Darkness on the box, in the manuals, and the title screen in the game itself. It is installed in the QFG4 folder. It has been referred to as Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness in other sources such as the Quest for Glory Anthology. A debug mode is accessible in the floppy version of the game. Interesting the floppy version lacks the Sierra logo on start up. Category:QFG Games Category:Original Canon